1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus, and also to a recording apparatus for effecting recording by automatically selecting one of plural cassettes.
2. Related Background Art
In a recording device provided in a conventional facsimile apparatus or copying apparatus, selection of one of plural cassettes has been achieved by limiting candidate cassettes from all the cassettes according to the main scanning length of a record image, and then selecting an optimum cassette according to the sub scanning length.
Also the order of priority of the cassette selection is always fixed in the apparatus.
However, in case there is a change in the condition of cassette selection, for example in case an optimum cassette is to be selected according to the sub scanning length regardless of the main scanning width of the record image, the above-mentioned conventional method for limiting the cassettes at first by the main scanning length is no longer usable.
On the other hand, if plural conditions are adopted for cassette selection and are judged in succession, similar judgment processes have to be repeated, for example, at first in the main scanning direction, then in the sub scanning direction and again in the main scanning direction, for selecting the optimum cassette, so that there is required a very complex selecting logic though additional flexibility can be obtained in setting the conditions for cassette selection.
Also in case the number of the cassettes is increased, there is required an even more complex process, as the judgment for such added cassette has to be added in the judgments for the main and sub scanning directions.
Also in the conventional apparatus, the order of priority of cassette selection is fixed as explained above, and cannot be altered according to the purpose of use.
Also conventional size-reduced recording is generally conducted with a constant reduction ratio. On the other hand, the present applicant has proposed, in the Japanese Patent Application No. 6-41990, filed Feb. 16, 1994 in Japan, to reduce the sub scanning length of a received image matching the length of a recording sheet.
Also in the conventional facsimile apparatus, a reduction rate cannot be selected by an operator. In case a received image is larger than a recording sheet, the maximum reduction rate permissible in consideration of the legibility depends on an original image. For this reason, the received image has been often inadequate for reading as frequently received images do not match the maximum reduction rate designed in the apparatus.
Also an output image has not been well legible when the main scanning width of a received/read original image corresponds to B4 size while the recording sheet is of A4 size, or when the sub scanning length cannot be accommodated in the recording sheet of A4 size, namely when the length of the received/read original image is larger than that of the recording sheet of B4 size.
Also, even when the length of the received/read original image is smaller than the length of the recording sheet, the effective recording range of the recording sheet becomes smaller than the actual sheet length if margins or receive-information data (footer) are added, and, in such case the entire received/read image cannot be recorded on the recording sheet in the original size (equal-size).